(Not so) Weekly Roundup No. 5 – 13 October 2013

Posted on October 13, 2013

Maybe realistically I should aim for a fortnightly instead of weekly roundup?! Time passes by way too quickly and suddenly it’s another Sunday!

WATCHED DRAMAS

Dragon Gate Ep 9 to 11 – well, the ship I had some hopes for (Xiao San / Ai Xin) sunk quite spectacularly! More like it exploded. Suddenly it dawned on me in episode 10 that one of the main reasons Dragon Gate turned out so poorly is because it fails to explain some of the fundamental logic that holds the plot together. After ten episodes I finally realised the position of the Prime Minister / President is actually like, hereditary, like a Royal family of sorts. OHHHH SO THAT’s WHY people want to kidnap Ai Xin and she’s so important? CRAP I didn’t know this! I just assumed you know, it’s a democracy like in the real world. *facepalm*

At least Jin Xiang Yu stopped saving Zhou Huai An in the last two episodes? But ARGH, as if the story is not a bit ‘out there’ already, the whole thing about Qiu Mo Yu leaving Huai An to marry the other guy is just ridiculous. WHAT? Nothing is making sense. Not to mention Huai An and Mo Yu making out in episode 10 was… ewww? Not feeling the chemistry between them. Never have. The whole thing is out of place.

Fate is Love (microfilm) – I’m not sure what is the ‘purpose’ of this microfilm? Like it’s not an advertisement or anything. But Dylan Kuo appears for like 30 seconds and the story concentrates on Irene Ko’s character, who had a heart transplant and discovers some weird things happen to her. The story is not really original and the interactions between the characters are a bit awkward.

Just You – hrm, I’m still stuck at episode 12?!

Loved in the Purple / The Purple Hairpin Eps 11 to 17 – At the half way mark already! Michelle is significantly less annoying since about episode 11 / 12 and she’s watchable now. At about episode 15 I finally feel like we’ve reached the point where – ohhh. This is the story I WANT to watch! Instead of all the earlier stuff concentrating on Xiao Yu / Li Yi.

I’ve reconciled the fact that there is no male lead in this drama. There’s only ONE lead, that’s Michelle and everyone else is just SUPPORTING her. Hrm. Despite this, I enjoyed one particular scene between Na Lan Dong and his MOTHER much more than any of the romantic stuff that has happened so far. Is that sad?

The Pursuit of Happiness Ep 1 – I didn’t watch any of the long trailers at all (maybe just the 30s ones?) because I don’t want to expect anything anymore! Lately it seems like expectation = disappointment? But I really liked the first episode! It makes you think a little, laugh a little and there are a lot of similarities to In Time with You (especially the supporting actors!) but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The first ep concentrated a lot on Sonia Sui’s character and I hope in episode 2 we’ll find out more about Tony Yang’s Yi Kang.

WATCHED VARIETY SHOWS

Happy Camp with the cast of Lanling Wang (5 October 2013) – it’s rare for cast members from non-airing shows to appear on Happy Camp but Lanling Wang is THAT popular!? They even dedicated a whole section to Daniel Chan where they reminisce 90s breakup songs, he dances a little and sings ‘Bi Wo Xing Fu’!!!! I would probably enjoy it more if I was watching / have seen Lanling Wang (since I don’t know the other cast members) but just for Daniel alone it’s worth a look.

This is the part where Daniel demonstrates how he can cry in FIVE seconds! OMG.

Kang Xi Lai Le (7 September 2011) – I actually have a lot to say about this, but I don’t want it to come out the wrong way? I kinda stumbled upon this on YouTube, it’s an episode of Kang Xi where Mark Chao and some of his friends (including Xiu Jie Kai) were guests. Mark then went on to talk about what happened between him and Zai Zai after he won the Best Actor Golden Bell.

There were many rumours that Mark and Zai Zai are no longer friends between Mark unexpectedly won the award for ‘Black and White’ while Zai Zai was the favourite. Mark said that he respects Zai Zai a lot because he’s like a ‘big brother’ but things did turn awkward between them after the awards. He just made (intentional or not) Zai Zai sound so… ungracious. You know what, even if it’s true if Mark truly respected Zai Zai he wouldn’t say this stuff on television.

In addition, the show then went on to talk about what a control freak Mark is! Like he always act as the wise one dishing out advice to his friends. Well, that’s nice except when his friend (a guy from the band COLOR) said he invited Xiao Tian Tian to be in his MV and even had a kiss scene with her, the look on Mark’s face was just… I can’t describe it, like he was SO DISGUSTED that his friend would want to kiss someone like Xiao Tian Tian. (FYI Xiao Tian Tian / Riva Chang appears in a lot of TW variety shows but because she’s chubby and not the ‘beautiful’ type, she’s mainly there to provide comic relief.) His friend keep explaining Xiao Tian Tian is actually a kind person but Mark just couldn’t seem to accept why anyone would invite someone like her to be in their MV. Like how shallow is that?

I had been reading some news about Xiao Tian Tian and her new boyfriend (who is more an ‘idol’ type) and the way people react to it is the same. As if a girl who’s fat / not pretty can’t go out with a guy who is good looking. WTF is that anyway. It’s completely okay for beautiful actresses to marry old, ugly guys (because they’re rich) but if the girl is not beautiful, somehow the standard is not the same. I can go on about this but it’s just SO ANNOYING.

TVBS Interview with Ariel Lin (22 September 2013) – a really great interview with Ariel where she talks a lot about her family. We even get to see what’s it’s like inside her household and she visits her old school!

BOLIN CORNER

Because I must include him every one of these roundup posts… a photo from his Japan visit a couple of weeks ago. (He had another fan meeting there!)

OH and I forgot to say, YEAH WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH MO YU ALMOST MARRYING THAT OTHER GUY? WHAT HAS THIS COME TO? *FACEPALM* Another problem is that there is no logic in the first place!! Arghh! And yeah, whenever Huai An & Mo Yu are together I’m not feeling it.

kat

October 14, 2013 at 9:08 pm

The part where Daniel shows off his awesome crying skills is around the 42 minute mark!! And then they go on to play this game where they have to pretend they’re an object / item / whatever based on the theme of night market food stall. LOLOL That part is funny also because he pretended he’s a chicken wing HAHAHA.

Re Dragon Gate – at some abstract level it ‘kinda’ makes sense where she tries to gain her father’s trust by marrying that other guy so he can be their ally? Or something??? But then that guy doesn’t have any power anyway? It’s silly right! Thinking about it hurts my brain!!!

06/19/2016 – New Theme!

After months and months of ummm-ing and arghhh-ing I finally bit the bullet got a new theme! I hope the font is not too small to read. There're probably a couple of things to tidy up here and there but hopefully most things should be working...

Drama wise - it feels like my 5 day holiday turned into a 2 month one since I hardly watched anything. That means I have a lot to catch up on! Thirty Something was the 1st drama I finished in like 3 months! >_< I am enjoying the TW-daily Better Man though, so maybe I can break that curse where I never finish any TW dailies.